I'm With You
by Blue Seidr
Summary: Leo runs off after the fight with Raph in New Girl In Town. Karai doesn't engage him immediately, and his brothers don't come after him or call or text, even hours later. Leo starts to wonder, do they really care or need him, if he isn't leader? Karai approaches him during these vulnerable moments, and makes him an offer. Horrible summary, drabble/oneshot, K plus. R and R!


**Hey! Thanksgiving break for me! I've been using this time today to finish a oneshot/drabble I've left sitting around for who knows how long. This is based off the song I'm With You by Avril Lavigne (excerpt below), so I guess you could call it a songfic. **

**This takes place right after Leo and Raph's fight in New Girl In Town. It's AU, so don't leave a bunch of reviews saying this isn't what happened. I know.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_I'm standing on the bridge,_

_I'm waiting in the dark,_

_I thought that you'd be here by now._

_There's nothing but the rain;_

_No footsteps on the ground_

_I'm listening but there's not sound._

_Isn't anyone trying to find me?_

_Won't somebody come take me home?_

_It's a d*** cold night_

_Trying to figure out this life_

_Won't you take me by the hand - take me somewhere new_

_I don't know who you are, but I -_

_I'm with you._

_I'm with you._

_\- _I'm With You, Avril Lavigne

* * *

At first, all Leo could feel was anger. It was like a ball of fire in his stomach, swirling furiously inside him, boiling his blood. Pure heat and energy seemed to pulse through his muscles and veins as he marched away from that rooftop, then broke into a pounding run, feet stomping the ground as if trying to push his anger into the ground. But the anger didn't leave. If anything, it became stronger. It was as if he had a miniature sun inside him, one that grew in size and intensity every second, and soon it would grow too large for his body to contain and Leo would burn in a fiery explosion. Is that what Raph felt like, all the time?

_No. Don't go there. Don't think about him. Think about anyone, anything else. Just not him. He doesn't need you. He doesn't want you. None of them do, apparently, as you're "the worst leader". That's what he said, and no one protested. They don't need you._

_Just - Just run. Don't think, just run. Anger is energy, and you burn energy to make it leave you, to make it go away. So run. Just run._

Leo did just that, and ran away from his troubles, until his legs grew weary and started to shake, and his feet ached from the stomping. He slowed his pace to a walk, and then stoped at the edge of a building. No one to be seen. No one followed him, or if they did, gave up the chase long ago. A light breeze blew in his face, and his mask tassels floated in the wind. He sighed softly. It's so calm here, alone. He hadn't realized it until just now, but this was the first time he'd been on the surface alone, without his brothers tagging along. It was different. No extra footsteps, no arguing, no laughter, jokes, moaning, or complaints. It was silent in this empty part of the city, the only noise a background of faint car alarms, buzzing, rumbling, and machinery.

For once in his life, it was peaceful. It was still all around him, like the world was holding its breath, and waiting for that ball of anger inside him to do something. Leo took another sigh, and felt that ball of anger shrink slightly with the release of CO2.

He let himself go there now. Raph. What was he thinking? What the shell was his problem? Yes, Leo was the leader. Get that straight and move on. Why did Raph constantly have to attack him on it? So what if he thought he would be a better leader? He had no idea. Not even an inkling of what being leader really was. All Raph saw was a turtle giving orders. But being leader wasn't just about telling the team what to do and when. Being leader was about coming up with plans, strategies, and tactics that stood a chance against the enemy. It was about being responsible for each and every move the team made, and making sure everyone came home alive. It was about being responsible for each victory, defeat, mistake, injury, and loss. It was about training harder and longer, and taking blame for everything that went wrong, whether it was his fault or not.

If Raph thought that he could handle all that, that he could do it all better than Leo, that he wouldn't fall apart under the strain, then fine. Fine. Let Raph take his place. If Raph proved an effective leader, then they really _didn't _need him.

Hot, angry tears laced with sadness slipped out of his eyes and slowly streaked down his face, two at a time. A leader couldn't cry, couldn't show weakness. But Leo wasn't leader anymore. He wasn't - wasn't really anything now. What was his role, if it wasn't leader?

He didn't know.

Leo angrily wiped away his tears. He was being stupid, wasn't he? Who said he wasn't leader anymore? Raph did, and himself in a furious outburst. Did that really count for anything? _No._ It was Splinter who had the final say, and currently, Splinter's choice was him. So technically, he was still leader. And what made him think Raph would succeed? The hothead never thought about anything for more than five minutes. What had made Leo think that Raph would last as leader?

Leo admitted he wasn't perfect; he never claimed to be. How could he? He knew he wasn't. But he was better than Raph in the leadership department, surely. Someone would come to find him and bring him back, right? Right. He wasn't unneeded. They'd come for him.

Until then, Leo decided he may as well take this opportunity to explore the city and cool off.

* * *

TIME SKIP!

* * *

Leo flipped over a large gap, and bent his knees as his feet landed on the rooftop. A burst of water erupted underneath his soles. _Splash_! Leo took a second to stop and wring out his mask. It had been raining hard for the last half-hour or so. Not so much that Leo couldn't see, but enough to soak him to the bone. Shelter sounded nice right about now.

Leo ran the last few buildings until the road turned to river. The Hudson to be exact.

There. Dead ahead. A bridge leading off to who knows where. Light traffic crawled across, illuminating small patches of concrete. Leo slid down the fire escape of the building he was on, then darted into the shadows. He made his way to the bridge, then ducked underneath. The underside of this bridge was abandoned, and mercifully dry. Leo took this opportunity to shake off as much rain as he could. Yes, he was a turtle, and he did like water, but this was a bit much.

Leo leaned against the brick support column supporting and breathed in and out. He had been out for hours, running and exploring and soaking in sights he hadn't seen on previous excursions to the surface. Every minute, he half-expected to hear a voice call out to him. To see one of his brothers come out of the shadows. To at the very least get a call or even _a text message _on his T-phone. But nothing. Nothing at all.

He had deluded himself with musings of trivial things for hours, pushing away the darker thoughts, but he could suppress them no longer. His brothers hadn't come for him. It wasn't a problem of not being able to; Leo knew for a fact that every T-phone was equipped with a GPS tracking device. He himself had asked Donnie to install them after the Mouser incident. No. The only reason his brothers hadn't come to him or contacted him was they didn't want to.

Leo shut his eyes and slid down against the column into a sitting position, letting a small groan out. Why - why hadn't they come to find him? Why had they left him all alone? Maybe they were giving him space, so he could cool off? Leo shook his head. If it had only been a hour or so he might accept that, but it had been _four._ In only three more the sun would begin to rise. Soon, the surface world would become far more dangerous for him. Someone should have come after him by now, surely. If they truly cared . . .

Leo bit his cheek. Those four words he had been trying so hard to avoid thinking. _If they truly cared . . . _Where were they? Why hadn't they come? Did - did they _not _care?

"Get a grip, Leo." He whispered to himself. He was overreacting, wasn't he? Just because they had let him run off and hadn't bothered to come look for him, it didn't mean they didn't care.

That sounded pathetic, even in his own head.

_"And the award for worst leader goes to . . . "_

Leo couldn't get Raph's words out of his head. They mocked him, flitting around in every corner of his mind. He had furiously told Raph he was leader. What if - what if Master Splinter had agreed, and passed leadership to Raph? What if they no longer needed him around?

His mind rebelled against that thought, and tried to shove it out, but it kept pounding its way back in.

If he wasn't leader anymore . . . If he wasn't leader anymore, did they truly need him? Being leader was his _thing._ It was his role, his place on the team. What was he if he wasn't leader? Donnie was the brains, Raph was the muscle and strength, Mikey was the spark, the soul of the team, the glue that kept them together. And Leo . . . Leo had always been the responsible one, the leader. But if Raph had become leader, then what was he? Nothing. Nothing at all. They wouldn't need him anymore. And they would let him go.

Leo hung his head, his shoulders slumping and his hands falling to his side and splaying against the ground. He fell back lifeless against the post he had been resting against, like a puppet who's strings had been cut.

"You okay there, turtle boy?" A voice called out of the darkness. A feminine voice, passive with a hint of polite interest.

Leo leapt to his feet in a nanosecond, as if he had been electrocuted. His hands went to his swords and drew them from their sheathes, whirling and aiming the steel points towards the source of the voice.

A light chuckle rang out, echoing under the bridge. "So. The turtle has some toys." The voice teased condensendingly.

"Who are you? Where are you? Show yourself." Leo barked furiously. He couldn't deal with this. Not now. Anyone who crossed him tonight was in for a massive shell-kicking.

Another chuckle. "Calm down. Just a joke. I know you can use your katana, Leonardo." A chill ran down Leo's spine. She knew his name, and the name of his swords. Who was this girl? He turned in a slow circle. He couldn't see her, and the echoing made it near impossible to tell where exactly the girl was speaking from.

"Yet I know nothing about you, not even what you look like. Why don't you stop hiding in the shadows like a coward and face me? You obviously want a fight."

"Ninjas hide in shadows, stupid. I thought you knew that. Though, considering how easy it was to follow you for the past few hours, maybe not." The girl was smirking; Leo could _feel_ it.

"That's it. Ninja or not, you have no hold on me. I'm leaving." Leo said with false bravado. It was a lie. She did, actually. Another ninja, in New York? And she had been following him, for hours apparently. He had to find out more.

"Wait! Okay, okay. Sheesh. Just having a bit of fun, but if you insist . . . " The girl seemed to buy his bluff. Out of the shadows at Leo's 2 o'clock, a figure stepped out into the light. Leo's eyes went wide and his face slack as he ran his gaze up and down the figure before him, taking in every detail.

She was tall, at least as tall as him if not taller. She was also thin; Leo was tempted to say lithe. She wore a black skintight jumpsuit, black traditional Japanese sandals, and a dark purple sash, adorned with a symbol of two diagonal lines being slashed by another. She also wore a chestplate and armor on her shins, forearms, thighs, and shoulders. She had a lot of makeup on, lipstick and eyeliner and Leo didn't know what else, nearly hiding her Japanese features. She had several earrings in one ear with only one in the other, and her hair was cut extremely short and styled, black in front and died blond in the back. Leo had never seen anyone like her, not even in the movies. She was - she was cool in a punk way. She was exotic. She was _beautiful._

For a moment, Leo's cheeks burned at his thoughts, and he felt the urge to apologize for something he hadn't said, or at least say something witty and clever. But his mind was blank.

The girl smirked at him, and Leo was brought back down to earth.

"Who are you?" He asked.

The girl just smirked that teasing smirk, placing a hand on her hips. "Is that any way to talk to a lady?" She mimicked a posh English accent.

Leo found himself smiling in spite of himself. "I apologize. Who are you, _ma'am?_" He laid emphasis on "ma'am", using a ridiculous accent himself.

The girl giggled, holding a dainty hand to her bright red lips. "My name's Karai."

Leo smiled. Karai. It was a pretty name, in a foreign way. "I'd introduce myself, but you already seem to know my name. So, if I may ask, why were you following me?"

"Bored, mainly. You seem interesting." Karai shrugged nonchalantly.

"Happy to please." Leo raised a nonexistent eyebrow while his heart beat fast in his chest.

"Hey, feel flattered. You're the first thing in this city that doesn't bore me."

"My brother's would disagree with you there." At Karai's questioning look, he elaborated. "I have a reputation of being the boring one."

"Well, this may surprise you, but there aren't exactly a whole lot of mutant turtles out there. I'd say that would make you pretty special."

Something warm flared to life in Leo's stomach, filling him with heat.

"M-me? Sp-special?" He stammered, a goofy grin twisting his lips as the heat reached his face. No one had ever called him special. Unusual, yes. But special? Never. He was just Leo. Boring, stick-in-the-mud, normal Leo.

"Yes, you." Karai teased, smiling at his flustered looked.

His cheeks were still on fire, darn it! And that warm feeling in his stomach was only growing stronger.

"Uh, thanks?" He offered, not exactly sure what to say next.

Karai laughed again, and Leo felt a strange satisfaction that he had made her laugh. It was a pretty laugh too, light and tinkling.

"Well, while I would love to chat a while longer, I do have a few things I need to do." As she said this, one of her hands crept behind her back, and she drew a tanto blade.

"Like what?" Leo shifted his grip on his katanas.

"Like taking you down." She said casually, as if talking about the weather, and without further ado, launched herself forward.

Leo stepped back in surprise, and hastily threw up his swords in a sloppy block. It did the trick though, and bought him enough time to focus and get in a better position to fight. His steel found hers, and they engaged in a furious sword fight, blades clashing like lightning, clans like thunder ringing out.

Karai didn't try to reignite the conversation, only smirked teasingly at him over her blade, so Leo didn't say anything either, and merely concentrated on the movement of his swords, the strength of his swings, and his footwork. It was thought-consuming enough without commentary, so he was grateful for the lack of talking.

Oddly, this didn't feel quite real to him. He should have been terrified, or angry, or at least felt animosity or hostility to the ninja girl he was fighting. But . . . He didn't. This didn't feel like a real fight. It felt more like sparring. He wasn't fighting as hard as he could have, yet Karai wasn't taking advantage of that. And he could see small gaps in Karai's defense, but didn't exploit them either. It wasn't a real fight, Leo realized. It was all for show, to test each other's ability. And right now, Leo was impressed. Karai was good. Really good.

It felt like forever had past before Karai backed away, breathing heavily. Leo didn't pursue, breathing hard himself.

"You're good. No wonder Shredder hasn't wiped you out yet."

Leo tensed. "Shredder? You - you work for Shredder?"

Karai cocked her head. "What did you think? I was part of some other ninja clan you turtles fight?"

Leo shook his head, shocked at himself. How could he have not made the connection himself? Super talented ninja girl wearing well-made armor? Who else could she be, besides an agent of the Foot?

"I'm leaving." He said firmly, and turned to walk out into the pouring rain.

"Aw, come on. Don't go." Karai pouted. "I didn't hurt you, did I? Why don't we hang out some more?"

Leo turned back to face her. "You're in the clan that's trying to kill me and my entire family. You must think I'm an idiot if you think I'm going to hang around you one second longer."

"Come on. I could have killed you hours ago. But I didn't." Karai took a few steps closer, grinning slyly. Leo tried to back away, but couldn't get his feet to move. Something about that look on her face . . . It both scared and intrigued him.

"Look. I'm bored to death in this city. You, turtle boy, are interesting. And I haven't seen any of your brothers around, despite the fact I've been tailing you for hours. Do they really care what you do?" Something in Leo's face must have given his emotional turmoil away, because she grinned like a shark that had just spotted her prey. "Apparently not. So let's hang out a bit. I promise not to kill you tonight. What do you say?" She held out her hand.

Leo stared at it warily. "What exactly do you want mean by hang out?"

She grinned. "You know, hit the town. Run the rooftops, duel a little, play a few _games._" She tilted her head. "Unless you would rather crawl back to your brothers who still haven't bothered to come looking for you?"

Leo flinched. She had hit the nail on the head. His brothers hadn't come looking for him. He had been gone for hours, and they hadn't so much as texted him. His earlier thoughts had been shoved to the back of his mind, but now they all came flooding back. Why hadn't they come looking for him, when in a couple short hours the sun would start to rise, and it had been hours since he had handed over leadership to Raph? Why? The only reason Leo could think of was that they didn't care about him anymore. What other reason could there be? If they had cared about him, they would have found him hours ago. They would have called him, asking him to come back home. They would have stopped him from storming off in the first place. But they didn't. They didn't do any of it. They didn't care about him anymore, and the thought knocked the wind out of Leo, hitting him like a roundhouse kick to the stomach.

"Well?" Karai raised an eyebrow. "You coming or not? My arm's getting tired."

He knew what he should say; what the good boy Leonardo would say. He should say no, brush her off and head home. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. This girl, who had just met him personally, was showing more interest in him than his own brothers. True, she was in the Foot, but she was honest, at least so far. And, to be completely honest, Leo was intrigued by her. She was cool and funny and didn't treat like a freak at all. She treated him like he was important, like he was special.

This girl was clearly dangerous. She had already provoked dangerous feelings after only a few minutes, most of which spent fighting. Good Boy Leonardo would say no.

But Leo didn't feel like being a good boy. He wanted to try something new. Something like hanging with a dangerous girl.

"Last chance. Are you with me or not?" Karai held her hand out a little further.

Leo stared down at it for a few seconds longer, weighing his options, before lifting his own hand and grabbing Karai's. It was so different from his brothers. Karai's was small and slim, more delicate. It was softer too, though that may have just been the feel of her gloves.

"I'm with you."

**So, if you would be so kind, drop me a line and tell me what you think. I always love tips and critique, so if you could, that would be amazing (just be kind about it).**

**Review please!**

**Have a safe Thanksgiving,**

**-Blue**


End file.
